The Accidental Honeymoon (15 page)

Rick’s endless day enters its third late evening. He has refused himself any sleep. He continues to stare at footage of Karin walking around The Northface Store as she tends to the inventory and various customers. The haggard editor will occasionally stop the footage when he detects any customers who could be an Emperor employee. Rick stares at his watch. It’ 4a.m. He can’t believe he is still doing this.

The editor gets up from his desk and walks to the bathroom. He closes the bathroom stall to take a leak. Suddenly, Rick has a panic attack. He can’t breathe. He knows he is going to lose his wife. She will take the child. He knows he will lose his job and have no career in the valley. He knows his entire world is falling apart because he has refused to stand up to Tor. Rick props himself up against the bathroom wall while he feels the sides of his head throb. “God, please kill me. Please kill me now. Give me a release.”

Fate denies him. He goes back to his desk and continues to work.

Several hours pass. The editor hears the first footsteps of the morning. He checks his watch. It’s 8 a.m. He has lost track of how many days he has been up. He continues to stare at Karin. He prays for something, anything to happen.

Another hour passes. Rick fights to keep himself awake. The office is abuzz with activity. He can hear the voices of the various editors and bloggers outside of his office. This just confuses his focus. He tries his best to continue to stare at the screen in front of him.

Rick’s eyes get heavy. “Just fall asleep. Fall asleep right now, at your desk, and Tor can put you out of your misery. He can fire you. Then you can get into your car, go home and get a good night’s rest before you get served with divorce papers,” the voice inside Rick’s head tells him. Pure fatigue begins to set in. Rick’s eyelids grow heavy. His chin begins to fall towards his chest.

As Rick is just about to shut his eyes, a familiar face jars him awake. He stares at the screen in front of him. He slows down the video to normal speed. Rick begins to slowly stand up from his chair. Yes, he does see someone from Emperor that he recognizes. Someone pretty damn big - Scott Appell, the head of Research & Design at Emperor Technologies.

The editor stares at the screen. He sees Karin walking towards him. They talk. She helps him select various ski jackets and other high-end winter clothing. Rick’s chest begins to pound. “Scott is one of the most senior people at Emperor. This has to be it.” Rick is so excited that he stops the video and runs over to Tor’s office.

The massive editor-in-chief of The Barbarian Blog Network is sitting back in his chair eating a two-pound breakfast burrito when a manic Rick Graves comes running into his office. “Hey, don’t you knock, asshole!” Tor yells.

“I think I found something on the video.”

Tor puts his breakfast down and follows Rick to his office.

Rick turns the video on again. “That’s Soctt Appell, head of R&D at Emperor.”

“I know who that is dumbass,” Tor scolds.

The two watch as one of the most senior people at Emperor buys several thousand dollars worth of clothing. They also notice Karin spending extra time with the exec. The footage shows Scott Appell leaving with four bags worth of merchandise.

“Alright, so where is the big story here?!” Tor demands to know.

Rick starts to panic. He thought this would lead to something.

The editor continues to look at the screen. He notices Karin walking back towards the counter. She stops and looks at the phone left next to the register. She picks up the phone and examines it closely. “He left his phone,” Rick says softly. The editor takes note of Karin’s confused face. “Wait a minute, is that the...Sat-Phone?!” Rick asks out-loud. He looks at the time stamp of the footage. Karin is holding the phone a full month before it is supposed to be released. Rick looks at his boss and says, “I think Scott left a prototype device at the store.”

Tor pushes Rick out of the way to get a better view of the screen. He watches Karin look up the store receipts and call Scott. The editor-in-chief fast forwards the footage and sees Scott hurry back into the store to grab the phone. “Oh fuck! He did! He left the Sat-Phone prototype in the store. And he must have given Karin an internship in order to shut her up about the incident. We got our fucking story!” Tor yells as his eyes open wide. The massive boss looks at his editor. “Write the story! I want it up and online before lunch!”

****

Ryan and Karin did not get much sleep last night. However, neither of them feels a bit tired. In fact, just the opposite. Both arrive together at the office energized and operating at a seemingly more aware and alert level than anyone else in the office. Karin begins to realize Ryan’s source of energy and inspiration. It comes from being free and unbounded by conventions.

It is a little bit after 10 in the morning. Karin sits in on a meeting about the latest sales numbers for the Sat-Phone. Ryan is pleased that the launch in Asia is beating the sales estimates.

“The IBS shareholders just got another reason to vote for the merger!” Ryan exclaims.

“I’ll send the sales data over to Ed Horace,” Michelle tells the CEO.

The meeting comes to an end at 11:30. Ryan looks at his watch and tells his wife, “Let’s go out for some lunch.”

“Sure!” Karin responds excitedly.

The two try their best to sneak out of the office. But when you are the CEO of one of the biggest companies in the world, one can not simply escape from the office without being stopped three or four times from senior managers who require some face time with the boss. Ryan is patient and focused with each exec who wishes to speak to him. Karin is in awe by the way her husband can focus on varying aspects of the company which require thoughtful analysis and quick decisions.

Fifteen minutes after trying to make their escape, Ryan and Karin finally make it out of the office. The CEO takes his wife to one of his favorite eateries which caters to power players in Silicon Valley. The couple enjoys a relaxing lunch of grilled chicken and steamed vegetables with a glass of white wine and homemade cookies. Ryan makes a point of shutting off his phone and his tablet. During the workday, Ryan has to talk to hundreds of people. Right now, he would like to focus on Karin.

“I usually try to get out of the office at least once a week. Now, I am going to have to do it every day,” Ryan remarks.

“Why?”

“So we can spend some time together.”

Karin giggles. “It kinda hard to show affection around the office.”

“I know,” Ryan answers as he plays footsies with his new wife. The couple pulls their chairs next to each other and continues to tease each other with their hands and feet. Between kisses, the check comes. The CEO is snapped back to reality. “Well, it looks like we have to get back to work.”

The couple returns to Ryan’s Audi and speeds back to the office. During a red light, Ryan turns his phone back on. Usually the CEO has about eighty messages waiting for him after his lunch hour. Now, he finds about six hundred messages waiting for him. “Wow. My phone is exploding.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. I have about eight times the messages I usually get during lunch,” the CEO remarks. Ryan doesn’t bother checking his phone. His messages are always screened by his staff of four assistants.

The CEO arrives back at the Emperor campus at a little after one. The couple walks to the elevator and ascend up to the fourth floor. As Ryan arrives in his office, he finds staff nervously working the phones.

“We’ve gotten busy,” the CEO remarks. Less than a minute later, Ryan’s second-in-command and his general counsel come rushing through his door.

“We have a problem,” Michelle tells Ryan.

“What happened?” Ryan asks.

“Have you checked the Barbarian Blog?”

Ryan rolls his eyes. Every month or so, Barbarian runs a hit piece about Ryan’s exploits. He assumes that one of the bloggers got wind of his excursion to San Francisco last night. “What did they write now?”

Michelle doesn’t respond. Instead, she links her laptop to the large flat screen in Ryan’s office. On the screen is the headline,
“Emperor R&D Can’t Hold On To Top Secret Phone. Leaves It Unattended On Store Counter.”

Ryan is not rolling his eyes now. He walks up to the screen and reads the article. Karin’s stomach begins to twist. Now her husband, her boss, will learn how she really got the internship at Emperor.

“Exclusive footage, obtained by The Barbarian Blog, shows Emperor Technologies’ R&D Chief Steve Appell leaving the prototype Sat-Phone as he walks off with his shopping spree at The Northface store on Stevens Creek Boulevard in Palo Alto. Northface employee Karin Davis picks up the phone and immediately calls the Senior Emperor exec to retrieve the phone. As you already know, this Northface store employee was soon hired as an intern at Emperor. The same intern who slept her way to the executive suite married Emperor CEO Ryan Wilde. Was Karin Davis hired as an intern at Emperor to cover up Steve Appell;s sloppy handling of the prototype Sat-Phone a month before its official release? Is IBS aware of Emperor’s inability to secure unreleased products? And most importantly, is Emperor CEO Ryan Wilde aware of the cover-up? It certainly appears that Ryan Wilde does not have complete control of his own company. Something which should concern the shareholders at IBS ahead of the merger vote.”

“The press has been hounding us for a response,” Michelle tells Ryan. “We have to do something.”

Ryan stares at the article on the screen. Karin’s face is red. She thinks about running out of the room.
How is Ryan going to react?
For the first time, Ryan does not have a quick response to give anyone. It makes every single person in the room nervous.

“We tell the press that this is going to be handled internally. That’s all they need to know,” Ryan tells the room.

“What about Scott?” Michelle asks. “He can’t stay in charge of R&D after this.”

“Dammit. He’s been in that department for over ten years. You’re right, Michelle. He can’t stay.”

Karin wants to interject. She wants to say something.
She feels responsible.

Ryan paces the office. Then he walks over to his desk phone and presses the intercom button.

“Have Scott Appell come to my office immediately,” Ryan tells his personal secretary.

“Yes, Mr. Wilde,” the personal secretary responds.

Karin’s heart is beating out of her chest. She is about to get sick to her stomach.
She can’t watch Scott get fired in front of her.
The young woman closes her eyes. She is on the edge of tears.

Three long minutes pass. The door opens. Ryan Wilde’s personal secretary leads Scott into the office. The senior executive is pale. He looks ill. The R&D chief looks around the office and sees the President of the company as well as the General Counsel in the office. Scott is also a little surprised to see Karin sitting at the sofa, looking almost as ill as he does. Scott nervously looks over at Ryan but doesn’t make eye contact with his boss.

“You saw the article, right?” Ryan asks Scott.

“Yes.”

“You know I can’t keep you as head of R&D.”

“I know,” Scott responds weakly as he ponders his future career options.
No one in Silicon Valley will hire me after this.
He is ruined. Scott’s eyes water as he looks directly at his boss. “I will tender my resignation.”

“I won’t accept your resignation,” Ryan responds.

Now Scott is in a panic. Ryan won’t even give him the opportunity to resign. He is going to be fired. His career -
anywhere and everywhere
- is dead.

Ryan looks down at his desk. “You made a mistake. A mistake that cannot be overlooked. But you are also the best R&D person in Silicon Valley. So here is what I am going to do - I am going to transfer you to the Boulder, Colorado office. You will work on our software development team for the next twelve months.”

Scott exhales deeply. “Thank you, Ryan. Thank you,” the senior exec continues to tell his boss.

“After the merger, I’ll transfer you back to R&D. I won’t be able to make you head of the department but you can certainly work your way back up.”

“I really appreciate this. I promise I will never, ever make that mistake again.”

“Alright. Well, at least you’ll be closer to the slopes over in Colorado.”

“Trust me. I’m not taking any vacations. I’m going to work 24/7.”

“Well, don’t kill yourself. Work hard. Play hard.”

“Thank you again, Ryan.”

“Alright. I’ll have HR arrange for your transfer. Sorry this had to happen to you but remember one thing,” Ryan tells his former R&D chief. “Every setback is an opportunity in disguise.”

Scott lifts his head up and nods. In that instance - that simple sentence - he had restored the confidence of a once broken employee.

Scott leaves the office. Ryan looks back at the screen. “Fucking Tor Janz,” the CEO of Emperor growls. “For fifteen years, I have allowed this insect to slander my name and my company. And I did nothing. Now he brings my wife’s name - and puts my wife’s face - onto his filthy blog. Enough is enough, he is going down.”

Karin looks at her boss and husband. Ryan looks at her. In this wordless exchange, everything is communicated. Ryan knows she is completely innocent. He knows she was just trying to protect someone who had made a mistake. And he is determined to restore her good name. He cares for her.
He loves her.

Author nods his head approvingly at his boss’ announcement. The General Counsel to Emperor Technologies is delighted to hear that he can finally sic his wolves on the bloated blogger. “I’ll get on the phone with my legal team,” Author announces as he stands from his chair.

“No,” Ryan objects as he holds a hand up. “I am going to handle this personally.”

Author looks at his boss with more than a bit of concern. “What are you planning?” Ryan’s top lawyer inquires. Ryan looks at the footage from the article. “The Barbarian Blog always seems to get big scoops on Silicon Valley stories. And we know how he does it most of the time. Tor Janz underpays his minions to search for incriminating photos or other postings on the Internet. Or he pays disgruntled ex-employees to dish dirt on their employers. But this footage from The Northface Store,” Ryan wonders while examining the video. “He didn’t find this online, of course. And no employee could have obtained this video from him.”